Contrary to popular belief, Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden not because the

y ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but in orde
r to prevent them from eating from the tree of life (both forbidden trees are in
Genesis 2:9) which would have made them eternal. God doesn t like competition! He
re is the verse (Genesis 3:22-23): And he said: Behold Adam is become as one of u
s, knowing good and evil: now, therefore, lest perhaps he put forth his hand, an
d take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. [23] And the Lord G
od sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was
taken. Adam and Eve were forced to live outside the garden so that they could
not eat from the tree of life BECAUSE they had sinned and therefore would live f
orever in that sinful state, having access to the tree of life and eating of its
fruit. And the LORD God said, Now that the man has become like one of us, knowing
good and evil, he must not be allowed to stretch out his hand and take also fro
m the tree of life and eat, and live forever. 3:23 So the LORD God expelled him f
rom the orchard in Eden to cultivate the ground from which he had been taken. 3:
24 When he drove the man out, he placed on the eastern side of the orchard in Ed
en angelic sentries who used the flame of a whirling sword to guard the way to t
he tree of life.

We all know the tale of Jonah and the whale but how well do we know it? Well enou
gh to know that he wasn t eaten by a whale? It was no mammal that ate Jonah it was
a huge fish though its type is not mentioned. Of course, I am presuming that ev
eryone reading this list knows that a whale is not a fish.

Samson and Delilah is a famous story from the Old Testament which ends rather ba
dly, as Samson s long hair is cut short to destroy his strength. The common miscon
ception is that Delilah was the one to give him the chop a kind of ancient bobbi
t if you will. But in fact, it was Delilah s servant who did it.

The Rapture is not in the Bible! Despite being believed by a large number of prote
stants (many of whom also believe that only that which is in the Bible can be tr
ue) it was actually invented in the 1600s by one Cotton Mather otherwise famous
for murdering women by strangling them to death (by hanging) in the Salem witch
trials. The term in the Bible commonly mistranslated to the word rapture actually
comes from the Greek ??p??? (harpazo) which actually means caught up or taken away a
nd it refers to one person only (Philip). Also when Paul used the Greek word "h
arpazo", the equivalent word for this in Latin is "rapio" from which derives the
Latin word "rapturo" from which we derived the word "rapture". So, it's fair to
say that even if the word isn't there, it's more likely that it isn't there bec
ause the word really didn't exist, but the concept certainly seems to be there.

There weren t three and they didn t visit Jesus in a manger. The Bible gives neither
the number of men (but does the number of gifts as three, which is probably whe
re this misconception stems from). Also, the wise men visited Jesus when he live
d in a house according to the Biblical account in Matthew 2:11. Additionally, He
rod demanded the death of all boys under two, making it probable that Christ had
been born up to two years prior. Why 2 years old? Becuase in Mathew 2:11 he say
s; "...in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi."
The Bible does not condemn drinking alcohol (remember that Jesus first public mir
acle was turning water into wine at a wedding party), or gambling and betting. T
he closest it comes to the latter is to recommend against get rich quick schemes
(Ecclesiastes 5:10) and loving money excessively. Be sure to remember that next
time you are sipping your wine at the local casino. Addendum: The Bible does NOT
 condemn the drinking of alcohol that misconception is a holdover from Calvinist
ic and Purtanical Prtotestantism which worked its way into Methodism etc; What t
he Bible DOES say is Be not DRUNK of the fruit of the vine at the same time many g
ainsayers will claim that the water was turned into grape juice but the original
Gospels clearly use a word which translates from the original Greek as WINE a fe
rmented grape beverage . [addendum courtesy of carra 23]. Traditionally drunk mean
s falling down drunk in other words, the loss of the will to control oneself.

The Virgin Mary is not described in the Bible as having travelled to Bethlehem o
n a donkey. No mention is made at all in the gospels of the mode of transport us
ed in the journey. The first mention of her riding a donkey comes from the non-B
iblical Protoevangelium of James which you can read here. It was written around
150AD and is also one of the oldest works to describe Mary as a virgin both befo
re and after the birth of Christ. The exact quote from the Protoevangelium is And
he [Joseph] saddled the ass, and set her upon it;

This has been mentioned in passing in comments on previous lists but it definite
ly warrants a mention here. Unlike most of the misconceptions here which deal sp
ecifically with what the Bible says or doesn t say, this one is a misconception ab
out the translation of part of it. The Old Testament refers to Moses as having h
orns on his head after he went up the mountain to see God. This prompted Michael
angelo to sculpt him with the horns. Many people believe that this was due to a
mistranslation of the description of Moses but, in fact, it isn t. Moses really is
described as being horned. And the reason for this? In Old Testament times, a p
erson who was believed to have seen or been touched by God was described as havi
ng horns (or rays of light) coming from their head. It was an ancient symbol muc
h like today s gloriole.